The LinkedIn account had stolen a job description from a legitimate photographer in the U.S. The fake profile had over 500 connections on LinkedIn and an even larger number on Facebook. Named “Mia Ash,” the profile purported to be a young woman working as a photographer in London, however, the persona was completely fake and used the Instagram photos of a young Eastern European woman. Multiply that by thousands of similar profiles and millions of customers and the profits add up.Īnd what about job-seekers, worried that a potential employer will come across a fake profile with their photo and links to questionable websites? Such was the case of a 40-year-old female engineer who said she was grateful potential employees didn’t come across a fake account that used her photo during the vetting of her social media accounts as part of the hiring process.īut when the scheme failed to obtain the expected results, the hackers tried again, this time utilizing a fake social media profile that had been interacting with some of the targets. Puzzled as to why they’d take his identity, the 20-year-old college student didn’t realize that his unknown social identity has value in the influence economy – where his “profile” might be sold for 15 cents per customer. Among other things, the fake account promoted various pornographic accounts and a gambling website. The fake account remained dormant until last year when it suddenly began retweeting Devumi customers continuously. But before he even graduated, his Twitter details were copied onto a bot account. Such was the case of a college student and aspiring filmmaker who set up his Twitter account while a high school sophomore. At the other end of the spectrum from the rich and famous are those obscure and unknown users who are victimized by this type of identity theft.
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